"As Nato flagship, she has faced down brazen Russian hostility in the Black Sea with jets buzzing overhead, been stalked by Russian spy ships and played a vital role protecting Nato allies during the British, American and French strikes against Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

"Through her deployment, this world-leading ship and her crew epitomised the nation we are going to be as we exit the EU - a truly global Britain which is outward-looking and engaged on the world stage."

Commodore Mike Utley, who was leading the Nato task force from Duncan, said: "HMS Duncan is probably the only maritime asset that has seen a raid of that magnitude in the last 25 years."

He added: "I think their tactics are naive. What they don't know is how capable the ship is.

"When you see that much activity, I think it reinforces the nature of what people expect at the moment and why there is a challenge from Russia."

The Sun Says

RUSSIA is now a rogue state.

The incident off the coast of Crimea is only the latest reckless mark on an increasingly long rap sheet.

We must bring all the pressure we can to bear on the Putin regime, including massively ramping up the use of Unexplained Wealth Orders on the Russian oligarchs running up suspiciously large tabs in London department stores.

And alongside President Trump, we must persuade France, Germany and others to put their money where their mouth is and contribute more to Nato.

Forget notions of an EU army. Give some muscle to the alliance we already have.

In total, 17 jets swarmed the warship as it sailed off the coast of Crimea

The footage shows the jets circling the ship before returning to Russian airspace with one of the pilots sending a message to Duncan's crew, saying: "Good luck, guys."

The documentary shows one of Duncan's sailors saying they felt the message could have been a warning to the ship while another said: "They had 17 aircraft, we have 48 missiles - I think we're going to win that one."

Commander Eleanor Stack, Duncan's captain, said: "To me it felt unprecedented. There were more aircraft than we have seen in a long time."

VOLCAN-WOAH!

MUM'S AGONY

Lieutenant Commander James Smith said of the Nato presence in the Black Sea: "They may consider it to be escalatory, we certainly don't. But it depends on how you spin the narrative.

"The one thing the Russians are very good at is spinning a narrative.

"We have to demonstrate and create our own as well.

"They can scream and shout all they want but we still have the right, as do all these units, to be where we are, operating how we are."

The first episode of Warship: Life at Sea is being shown on Channel 5 tonight.

Dramatic footage of HMS Duncan at its most 'heightened state of preparedness' in clip from Channel 5 doc Warship: Life at Sea

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